1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air conditioners, and more particularly, to an air conditioner, in which a structure of a cabinet is improved for room air circulation, and free direction change of air flow from the cabinet.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The air conditioner cools or heats a room, or cleans air for forming more comfortable room environment. The air conditioner is provided with a refrigerating system having a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and, in the air conditioners, there are split type and package type.
The split type air conditioner has a cooling/heat dissipation device mounted on an indoor unit, and heat dissipation/cooling device and a compression device mounted on an outdoor unit, with refrigerant pipes connected between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit separated thus. Even though having the same functions with the split type air conditioner, the package type air conditioner has the indoor unit and the outdoor unit packaged in one unit, for installation on a wall or window of a house.
FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a related art package type air conditioner, and FIG. 2 illustrates an exploded perspective view of a related art package type air conditioner, and FIG. 3 illustrates a longitudinal section of a related art package type air conditioner.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the related art package type air conditioner is provided with a base 2, a cabinet 4 on the base 2, and an air guide 6 for dividing a cabinet space into an indoor side space ‘I’ and an outdoor side space ‘O’.
On a front of the cabinet 4, there is a front panel 9 of the package air conditioner. Inside of the cabinet, there are a compressor 12 for converting the refrigerant from a low temperature, low pressure gas to a high temperature, high pressure gas, and a condenser 14 for condensing the refrigerant from the compressor 12 into a liquid state refrigerant.
Inside of the cabinet, there are also an expansion valve (not shown) for expanding the high temperature, high pressure refrigerant condensed at the condenser 14 into a two phased (a mixture of liquid and gas) low temperature, low pressure refrigerant, and an evaporator 16 for evaporating the two phased refrigerant from the expansion valve into a gas state.
In the meantime, there are outdoor inlets 5 in side and top surfaces of the cabinet which form the outdoor space ‘O’ for drawing outdoor air, and a back side of the cabinet is opened for discharging the air to the outdoor.
The air guide 6 has a lower guide 7 on the base 2, and an upper guide 8 over the lower guide 32.
The front panel 9 has a room air inlet 10 in a front surface for drawing room air, and a room air outlet passage 11 over the room air inlet 10. The room air inlet 10 has a suction grill 10a mounted thereon, and the room air outlet passage 11 has a plurality of air direction control louvers 11a. 
The plurality of air direction control louvers 11a are left/right direction air direction control louvers for controlling an air direction in left/right directions, and up/down air direction control louvers for controlling an air direction in up/down directions.
The package type air conditioner has a bilateral motor 20 fixedly secured to the air guide 6 between the indoor side space ‘I’, and the outdoor side space ‘O’. The bilateral motor 20 has a front shaft 20a projected to the indoor side space, and a rear shaft 20b projected to the outdoor side space.
The front shaft 20a has a turbofan 24 coupled thereto for forced circulation of room air through the evaporator 16, and on a suction side of the turbofan 24, there is an orifice 26 for making a speed of the air faster.
The rear shaft 20b has a propeller fan 28 for forced pass of outdoor air through the condenser, and in rear of the propeller fan 26, there is a shroud for forming a flow path of the room air drawn by the propeller fan 26.
The operation of the related art package type air conditioner will be described.
Upon putting the package type air conditioner into operation, the refrigerant circulates through the refrigerating cycle having the compressor 12, the condenser 14, the expansion device (not shown), the evaporator 16, and the bilateral motor 20 rotates the turbofan 24 and the propeller fan 28.
Then, air in front of the package type air conditioner is drawn backward by the turbofan 24, and passes through the air inlet 10 in the front panel 9. The room air is cooled down at the evaporator 16, and passes through the orifice 26, the lower guide 7, and the upper guide 8 in succession. Then, the room air passes through the air outlet passage 11 in the front panel 9, and is discharged to a front side of the package type air conditioner, again.
In the meantime, outdoor air is drawn through the inlets 5 in the cabinet 4 by the propeller 28, passes through the shroud 30, and takes heat from the refrigerant at the condenser 14, and is discharged to an outside of the room.
However, the related art air conditioner has the following problems.
First, in order to discharge heat exchanged air, the left/right air direction control louvers or the up/down air direction control louvers are required, without fail. However, small and plural louvers in the cabinet make an inside of the air conditioner dirty as foreign matters stick to the louvers, and cause difficulty in removal of the foreign matters. Moreover, the mounting of the plurality of the louvers is difficult and increases cost.
Second, if only one of the plurality of the left/right air direction control louvers or the plurality of up/down air direction control louvers is mounted, a range of air direction control is limited as the room air direction can be controlled in one of the left/right or up/down direction.
Third, the concentration of discharge of the air into the room only on an upper forward part of the package type air conditioner required a substantial time period in spreading in the room.
Fourth, the room air inlet, and the room air outlet in the same front surface of the package type air conditioner causes a problem in that a substantial amount of discharged air is drawn again, directly.